Wyoming Area’s first football coach remembered

WEST PITTSTON – Legendary high school football coach Jack Henzes passed away this past week and for the Wyoming Area community that can remember back to the late 1960s, Coach Henzes left an indelible mark. He was laid to rest yesterday and Warrior Nation was well represented at his viewing and funeral service.

When I heard the news, a whole range of emotions overcame me from sadness to joy.

It’s always sad when part of your past disappears, and even though I never played for Coach Henzes, I know plenty of guys that did.

As a child growing up in West Pittston in the early days of Wyoming Area, Henzes became the school district’s first head football coach and all those Warrior football players became our heroes and at the top of the list was Coach Henzes.

He was tough, revered, and most importantly, loved by his players such as Kim Pace, Fred Marianacci, Billy Anzalone, Angelo Falzone and so many others in the four years Henzes led the Warriors from 1966 to 1969.

During his years at Wyoming Area, he had four winning seasons and in a blink of an eye politics came into play and he was fired, bringing Tom Vaxmonsky in to take his place.

Going into seventh grade, my gym and health teacher was the deposed Henzes. Even though he was not the head football coach, he stayed at Wyoming Area, but not for long.

During my first gym class with him, I was in awe and mainly in disbelief he was even my teacher.

He seemed to approach teaching like he did coaching. He explained to our class the way he grades and he said, “If you don’t perform, you will get an “F” and “F” does not mean Fantastic!”

That was 53-years ago, and I’ve never forgotten that day.

He wasn’t my gym teacher for very long and within a month of the beginning of the school year, he was gone. He left Wyoming Area with his head up to take a job at Dunmore High School where he went on to be one of the greatest Pennsylvania High School coaches of all time.

He retired with a record of 444 wins, 164 losses and 8 ties, the second best winning record by 11 games to Berwick’s George Curry with 455 games.

Of those 444 wins, 32 of them were under the Warrior program when his team went 32-12.

In 2016, the Wyoming Area Class of 1971 held their 45th class reunion at Mt. Carmel Church Hall, Pittston, and invited several former teachers including Coach Henzes.

During the reunion, some of his former players asked me to photo them with Coach Henzes and of course, I jumped at chance.

Fred Marianacci and Kim Pace played under Henzes through their junior year at Wyoming Area. They both were looking forward to a great season heading into their senior year, but those dreams were shattered when the school board fired Henzes during the summer of 1970.

“It was tough going into my senior year under a new coach, but Coach Vaxmonsky called the three senior captains — Bobby Langan, Angelo Falzone and myself — and said we had to move forward,” Marianacci recalled after Henzes was fired.

Marianacci said he could recite many stories about Coach Henzes, like many of the players that took part of the Henzes’ program.

“He taught me that being a football player was special, and we should be proud of being a student-athletes,” Marianacci said. “On game day, he required us to wear a sport jacket and tie and if anyone didn’t have a sport jacket and/or tie, to let him know. Guaranteed every player on that team on Friday, wore a coat and tie. He always made us feel special and different and a part of something special.”

Marianacci said even today when he dons on a jacket and tie, he feels special and gives Coach Henzes all the credit for instilling that into him.

“He was a great mentor and very much like a father figure to me and was on the same page as my dad,” Marianacci added. “My dad was on the Wyoming Area booster club and all the dads loved Jack. He was my student driving instructor and the whole time we drove we talked about football.”

For Marianacci, his experiences with Coach Henzes came down to discipline

“He addressed you as ‘Yes Sir’ and ‘No Sir’ and that’s how he wanted to be addressed, ‘Yes Sir’ and ‘No Sir,’” Marianacci remembered. “We loved it, we thought it was great, we felt special. Jack Henzes made you feel special”

Over the decades, Marianacci would see Coach Henzes at the Marianacci family restaurant and was thrilled to see him each and every visit.

Attorney Bill Anzalone graduated from Wyoming Area in 1969 and had played his entire high school career under Henzes beginning with his sophomore year in 1966, Henzes’ first year at the helm for the Warriors.

Anzalone noted Coach Henzes had a difficult task of managing well over 100 football players from four towns of West Pittston, Exeter, Wyoming and West Wyoming after the merger to create the Wyoming Area School District.

“He put together a coaching staff that came down the first year of the jointure,” Anzalone said. “He had sophomores, juniors and seniors from all those towns vying for starting spots. He did a remarkable job of taking so many athletes from so many schools and actually molded them into a new team. That to me was an extremely impressive thing.”

Anzalone, who authored a book geared towards trial lawyers, wrote a few pages on Coach Henzes.

“I wrote about how important he was to me in my life and how he was the second most important individual next to my father and how he molded me and all of his players to be so disciplined,” Anzalone explained. “He trained us like we were Navy Seals. The physical training was above and beyond. He taught us to be men.”

Pace first met Coach Henzes while he was just in eighth grade. He recalls how he was at the football field behind the Tenth St. School in Wyoming during their first encounter.

Pace ended up being a kicking specialist in high school that continues today teaching young players how to punt, kick extra points and field goals and kick-offs.

“I was working on kick-offs when I looked up and there he was (Coach Henzes) with Coach (Phil) Angeli,” Pace explained. “I was a nervous wreck and he wanted me to do some kick-offs during gym class. After class, he told me I did a pretty good job and then he told me to I should push myself away from the table because I was getting round and he also told me to get a haircut.”

Pace said Henzes wanted to see him back the next day, but before he did that, made sure he got crew cut.

During high school, Pace ended up with an injury prohibiting him from seeing action, but Coach Henzes told him he wanted Pace to be a dedicated kicker on the team. As Pace would tell you, back then; high school teams didn’t have such players. Many players played offense and defense and someone was chosen as the punter and kicker.

“It’s hard to put it into words what he meant to me, but he gave me a chance to being on the team,” Pace said. “He gave me a chance to excel as a kicker when the (dedicated) position didn’t exist in high school football and I’ll never forget that. I have so much respect and admiration for the man because he gave me a chance.”

Pace admitted, over the decades he did not have constant contact with Henzes until a few years ago when Pace was in dire need for a double lung transplant. After he received his lungs, the first person he went to visit upon getting cleared to drive, was Coach Henzes.

Henzes coached thousands of players in his career and no doubt each and every one has their own story about him and what he meant to them in their lives.

Coach Jack Henzes was a man of faith that loved his God, family, football and each and every individual he coached along the way. He was a titan, a legend and a hero and will be missed by all but never forgotten.